Hello Folks,
Things are well underway for the 2010 Luna Lake Hoedown. The event will be June 26th, 2010 at Prospect Park on the East Side of the City of Ypsilanti (corner of Prospect and Cross st.)

Get ready to get your thumbs green and your hands a little dirty. Starting at 9am we will be working in the park while being entertained by local musicians. Then, at noon, we will have 3 of the areas best acts performing. Black Jake and the Carnies, Afternoon Round and Hullabaloo. We’ll also have the YMCA on hand to run children’s activities as well as an arts and crafts table.

Add to that a Native Plants sale and a Potluck and you have a grand ole’ Ypsilanti Hoedown.

It may still be winter in Michigan, but many of us are already making plans for summer fun! Join us on Thursday, February 25th at Frenchie’s from 8-11PM as we wile away the winter hours with some great music, food, drinks and friends all to benefit what is fast becoming one of Ypsilanti’s very own Rites of Spring: The Luna Lake Hoedown! This year’s event will feature live performances by local bands, including Black Jake and the Carnies and Hullabaloo, as well as YMCA sponsored activities for kids of all ages, native plants educational programs and a community potluck and BBQ. With 20% of your food and beverage purchases benefiting the Luna Lake Fund, the Frenchie’s Fundraiser will help ensure that this year’s Hoedown is a huge success and that Luna Lake continues to blossom and grow as a neighborhood gem. Can’t make it to the Fundraiser? That’s OK! Just drop by Sidetrack or Frenchie’s anytime on the 25th, and present the attached coupon to donate 20% of your purchase to Luna Lake. Feel free to print or copy as many coupons as you like, pass them around to friends and spread the word. The more, the merrier!

Please see the attached flier for more details. Thank you for your continued support of the Luna Lake Native Plants Garden! We look forward to seeing you on the 25th!

(Media-Newswire.com) – CHICAGO ( Feb. 8, 2010 ) – The International Joint Commission, in cooperation with the participating agencies listed below, is hosting a public meeting in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Feb. 17 to discuss plans and get recommendations on Asian carp control efforts. This will be the second public meeting in the Great Lakes region.

Who: Senior representatives from

International Joint Commission;
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
U.S. Coast Guard;
Great Lakes states, provinces, municipalities and tribes ( invited );
White House Council on Environmental Quality; and
Scientific experts

Since the Fourth of July falls on a Saturday this year, there will be no curbside service delays. However, the Ypsilanti Recycling Drop-off Center located in Historic Depot Town will be closed Friday, July 3, 2009 and Saturday, July 4, 2009 in observance of the holiday. City Hall and the Department of Public Services will be closed on Friday, July 3, 2009.

It looks like it will be a great night for the Crossroads Festival Downtown. Come Downtown and see some live music and visit the local retailers. I’m certain many of you haven’t been Downtown in a while and I strongly encourage going.
The bands are Just Jill and Mylo Fix both accousticly rocky.

If you want a little more upscale but definelty affordable meal:
J-Neils Mongolian BBQ is a fabulous meal .. All you can eat local meat and produce* (there is seafood too but that isn’t local) stir fried with any sauce you want for $13.00. *when available. The Keystone Bar downstairs from J-Neils is fantastically nice too. Its pricier than the other local watering holes but it is a classier.

Beezy’s is a great choice if you want Fresh, Local, quality sandwhiches and soup.

Take a look around the ‘What is That’ gallery where they have really nice artwork.

If you are the family type:
The Event is very family friendly… Take the kids by the Rocket and let them pick out nickle candy or some crazy inexpensive toy. You can get burgers at Biggies for $1.00, Coney Dogs at the Wolverine for $1.00

If you want a beer and you are one of the cheap folks like me, You can visit the Tap Room — where you can watch the music from their patio. I think Friday is still $2.25 Pints of Bells, or you can sit on the Pub-13 Patio with $2.00 16oz Miller lites (I think I am correct).

I hope to see you at the Crossroads Festival

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Remember, Relay for Life is this Saturday at Riverside Park

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We are still looking for ideas for the Block Party

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We are looking for ideas on what to do for the Heritage Festival Parade
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Consider buying a home in Ypsi? There’s lots of help available!
• Up to $15,000 in down payment assistance
• Up to $22,000 in grants for rehabilitating foreclosed homes
• Help with credit repair

Keep in mine these requirements:
• These incentives are available for owner-occupied homes only
• Applicants must meet income requirements which vary based on household size
• Purchase price cannot exceed $160,000
• Other restrictions and guidelines may apply

Where to Start? Free homebuyer education classes!

The free homebuyer education and pre-purchase counseling will provide all the information you need to purchase a home, and make it work for you. Attending the homebuyer educational session (6 hours in either two sessions or a single session) as well as the pre-purchase counseling will help you unlock some of the downtown payment and/or rehabilitation funds available. These funds can include the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), Community Development Block Grandt (CDBG) and HOME funds. So sign up for a session today!

Description of Ypsilanti from:
IGGY – Open Up and Bleed
By Paul Trynka
Copyright 2007 by Paul Trynka
Published by Broadway Books
Pages 72,73

Coachville Gardens Trailer Park sits in green surroundings on Carpenter Road, just outside the city of Ann Arbor, officially in the town of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Although it’s gained the inevitable gaggle of sprawling big-box stores, Ypsilanti is still mostly a lush, quiet place where nothing much happens. There are plenty of isolated wooden houses where you can live undisturbed, watching out for cranes and squirrels in the summer and taking your dog for long, reflective walks through the crisp virginal snow in the winter. It’s a beautiful setting, although, like many small country towns, there’s occasionally a feeling of claustrophobia, and it’s easy to bump into slightly odd characters who watch TV late into the night on jerry-rigged cable hookups, haunt Internet chat rooms, or get loaded on illegal drugs to numb their boredom.

Although these days Ypsilanti rather grandly terms itself a city , in reality it’s overshadowed by its much bigger neighbor, Ann Arbor, which since 1837 has been defined by the presence of the University of Michigan. The university was celebrated for its diverse curriculum and liberal ethos and, together with the presence of General Motors and Ford in nearby Detroit, it would attract a constant influx of new residents to the city and stimulate thriving local industries in engineering, pharmaceuticals, and electronics.

The influence of the university ensured that Ann Arbor was a classy town. People who lived there drank espresso, formed arts groups, and took dancing lessons. In contrast, people from Ypsilanti were often regarded as Midwestern hillbillies. The two towns weren’t totally uneasy bedfellows: plenty of academics might dispense intellectual wisdom at the university and then return home to a sprawling isolated farmhouse in Ypsi’s beautiful countryside, but the divide was perceptible for anyone who crossed the city limits: the gap between people whose salaries were generated by their intellects and those whose weekly paychecks were earned with the rude labor of their hands on the farm or in the factory; between people of culture and rural rubes. It was on that divide that Jim Osterberg and Iggy Pop grew up.

But wait there is more news:Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that the Sliders ownership is going Public. It was my understanding that the new stadium in Waterford Township, where the Sliders will play next year, was under construction. It turns out that the organization wasn’t able to raise the funds to build the stadium through banks and is now looking for public investors. They are looking to get 5 million dollars by selling blocks of 100 shares for $1000.

What does this mean for Ypsilanti? If the Sliders don’t come up with the money to build a stadium will the Sliders stay in Ypsilanti?

The Sliders are on the road this week but will be back next week so reserve your tickets now. Remember you get in for a buck with your Big Three, or UAW badge.